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This week, it’s the community-based media’s turn to react to the billions spent in campaign bucks and in PAC money, freed from all constraints by Citizens United, which was merely the crown on top of a series of rulings removing limits on how much campaigns and outside groups could raise and spend on electing people to office – not to mention the millions thrown into the ring on behalf of the now-failed amendment proposals to theMinnesota state constitution.

The presidential campaign and those amendments really sucked most of the air out of the room – so much so that, yet again this year, as in 2010, the all-important legislative majority switched parties – from Republican to DFL control. And again, the surprise was theMinnesota House of Representatives, which now sports a 12-vote majority of DFLers headed by newly elected Speaker of the House Paul Thissen and Majority Leader Erin Murphy (my rep).

The Senate was less a surprise, since those with political ears to the ground were predicting a majority turnover there. Sure as hell – it came – and for the first time in 20-odd years, DFLers are driving all three governing entities – both houses and the Governor’s office.

Some attention was given to the heavy races in the 6th and 8th Congressional Districts, but the other incumbents generally sailed through and were ignored. We do that. We pay little attention to races with token or no opposition, many of the local races and a ballot question or two, and almost none of the judicial races, including the state Supreme Court, and certainly the most invisible of all – Watershed District Commissioners. What’s that? Watershed District what?

What about the St. Paul SchoolsLevy Referendum? It passed, 2 to 1, even though voters could have confused it with yet another Amendment and voted NO.

We’ll try to get a handle on all this and examine the entire commercial nature of political campaigns and why this commerciality represents a conflict of interest for media who cover those campaigns with one penciled hand while taking the massive campaign dollars with the other. What happened in this country to turn campaigns for public office into just another advertising scheme for used cars and detergent?

TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI toss these questions and more to a panel of local and community-based media outlets rarely heard from in the campaign cacophony consuming our airwaves and the printed page for over two years running.

MOST RECENT SHOW

Election Night, I was privileged to anchor a great team of reporters and analysts at KFAI under News Director Dale Connelly that brought you election results, analysis and conversation from the moment polls closed at 8:00PM until Midnight. Look for an audio podcast of that four hours of conversation elsewhere on this site soon. We'll try to highlight some of the good stuff from that evening's conversations and post those tidbits later as well.

But, before that came Monday’s TruthToTell…

TruthToTell covered a number of the election issues voters confronted last Tuesday.

Minnesota voters, thank god, turned out in record numbers once again – and in almost every precinct in the state - to the tune of some 79% of the eligible electorate. Now, if we could only repeat those numbers for local races, next year and thereafter – perhaps we can really claim that our local governments represent a majority of the whole city or county or school district.

Elected officials respond to the constituents who put them in office, but even more to those who show up beyond Election Day and insist that the public interest is served by that official’s work in office.

An important function of the Minnesota Secretary of State is to provide Voter Information – and that website is loaded with it.

And, thanks to the defeat of the Voter ID Amendment, you will still need only walk in to your precinct polling place and vote, if pre-registered, or to register right there if you’re not by simply showing something with your current address on it and voting then and there.

In addition to the much-discussed and critical State Constitutional Amendments proposed, all of Minnesota’s Legislative offices and three State Supreme Court Justices were up for election this year, along with all Federal offices.

While most major cities and school districts elect their board and council members in odd-numbered years, some Minneapolis and suburban Metro cities and school board races and a St. Paul Schools Levy Referendum are on the ballot in this even-numbered year. So some, not all, of you will elect local officials in 2013.

Over the course of the horrendously fatiguing campaign season, we heard and saw almost too much about the Presidential candidates, a bit less about the US Senate race, even less about our Congressional races unless there are battles royal under way – such as that for the 6th(Bachmann/Graves) and 8th (Nolan/Cravaack) Districts – and almost nothing about some very important contests, especially about your state and local judges and justices – truly important people who determine the application of the law and its impact on our lives. So buried are these elections, it’s a wonder that anyone bothers to make them elected – until someone tries to take that power away.

TTT’S ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI consult four elections and political experts and analysts to generate some enlightened interest in some of the more obscure races and handicap the Legislative make-up to come. Now we know who will be in charge after last Tuesday? It will be you, and me - US.

PLEASE NOTE – I will anchor a great team of reporters and analysts at KFAI under News Director Dale Connelly bringing you election results, analysis and conversation from the moment polls close at 8:00PM until Midnight – or when we know as many of the results as we can report before then. Tune in Tuesday night for voices of those in the know. KFAI – FM 90.3/106.7 or streaming live online at www.KFAI.org.

But, Before that, comes Monday’s TruthToTell…

TruthToTell has covered a number of the election issues voters will confront Tuesday, Election Day 2012. Many of you have already voted. Some will need to register when you enter your voting places (open from 7:00AM to 8:00PM) Election Day.

WE SAID WHEN, NOT IF, you enter your polling place. It’s expected that most of this country’s residents will vote, but not 100% of those eligible to do so. In fact, even in this contentious year, turnout may barely exceed 50%. Why? Why don’t they all vote?

Many will not because they’re disgusted by the tone and tenor and corruption they’ve witnessed in the political process from local through federal offices.

Many will not because they insist their vote doesn’t count. Because their candidate may have lost a previous election, and had that man or woman won, they’d be encouraged to vote again.

Or they may believe there’s little or no difference among the candidates running for an office, especially if they as residents have seen little of the change they wanted and expected from casting their ballot.

The truth, of course, is that the more eligible voters stay away from elections, the more corrupt the office-holders become. It should be obvious that those who have the money and time to spend influencing elected officials during elections, yes, but even more during the years between elections when those officials are actually governing. Which is to say that none of should expect to simply vote and walk away from our citizenship responsibilities until the next election.

In addition to the much-discussed and critical State Constitutional Amendmentsproposed, all of Minnesota’s Legislative offices and three State Supreme Court Justices are up for election this year, along with all Federal offices.

Monday morning, we look at the elections and processes you will engage in making your choices Tuesday between 7:00AM and 8:00PM.

Over the course of the horrendously fatiguing campaign season, we hear and see almost too much about the Presidential candidates, a bit less about the US Senate race, even less about our Congressional races unless there are battles royal under way – such as that for the 6th (Bachmann/Graves) and 8th (Nolan/Cravaack) Districts – and almost nothing about some very important contests, especially about your state and local judges and justices – truly important people who determine the application of the law and its impact on our lives. So buried are these elections, it’s a wonder that anyone bothers to make them elected – until someone tries to take that power away.

TTT’S ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI consult four elections and political experts and analysts to generate some enlightened interest in some of the more obscure races and handicap the Legislative make-up to come. Who will be in charge after Tuesday?

MOST RECENT SHOW

WE CONTINUE OUR ELECTION COVERAGE WITH A CONDENSED ENCORE PRESENTATION OF OUR SHOWS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS FACING MINNESOTA VOTERS NOVEMBER 6 – THE SO-CALLED VOTER ID AMENDMENT AND OUR SHOW'S TAKE ON THE CATHOLIC RESPONSE TO THE SO-CALLED MARRIAGE AMENDMENT– WHICH WOULD MEMORIALIZE IN CEMENT 1) A REQUIREMENT THAT ALL VOTERS PRESENT A GOVERNMENT ISSUED PICTURE IDENTIFICATION CARD IN ORDER TO CAST A BALLOT, AND TO PROHIBIT GAY MARRIAGE BY DEFINING THAT INSTITUTION AS OCCURRING ONLY BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN.

Election Night, I was privileged to anchor a great team of reporters and analysts at KFAI under News Director Dale Connelly that brought you election results, analysis and conversation from the moment polls closed at 8:00PM until Midnight. Look for an audio podcast of that four hours of conversation elsewhere on this site soon. We'll try to highlight some of the good stuff from that evening's conversations and post those tidbits later as well.

But, before that came Monday’s TruthToTell…

TruthToTell covered a number of the election issues voters confronted last Tuesday.

Minnesota voters, thank god, turned out in record numbers once again – and in almost every precinct in the state - to the tune of some 79% of the eligible electorate. Now, if we could only repeat those numbers for local races, next year and thereafter – perhaps we can really claim that our local governments represent a majority of the whole city or county or school district.

Elected officials respond to the constituents who put them in office, but even more to those who show up beyond Election Day and insist that the public interest is served by that official’s work in office.

An important function of the Minnesota Secretary of State is to provide Voter Information – and that website is loaded with it.

And, thanks to the defeat of the Voter ID Amendment, you will still need only walk in to your precinct polling place and vote, if pre-registered, or to register right there if you’re not by simply showing something with your current address on it and voting then and there.

In addition to the much-discussed and critical State Constitutional Amendments proposed, all of Minnesota’s Legislative offices and three State Supreme Court Justices were up for election this year, along with all Federal offices.

While most major cities and school districts elect their board and council members in odd-numbered years, some Minneapolis and suburban Metro cities and school board races and a St. Paul Schools Levy Referendum are on the ballot in this even-numbered year. So some, not all, of you will elect local officials in 2013.

Over the course of the horrendously fatiguing campaign season, we heard and saw almost too much about the Presidential candidates, a bit less about the US Senate race, even less about our Congressional races unless there are battles royal under way – such as that for the 6th(Bachmann/Graves) and 8th (Nolan/Cravaack) Districts – and almost nothing about some very important contests, especially about your state and local judges and justices – truly important people who determine the application of the law and its impact on our lives. So buried are these elections, it’s a wonder that anyone bothers to make them elected – until someone tries to take that power away.

TTT’S ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI consult four elections and political experts and analysts to generate some enlightened interest in some of the more obscure races and handicap the Legislative make-up to come. Now we know who will be in charge after last Tuesday? It will be you, and me - US.

The once obscure, even friendly-sounding acronym for an equally innocuous corporate name – ALEC – for the American Legislative Exchange Council – has suddenly been thrown into the glare of exposure lately. ALEC-controlled state legislators across the country are literally flooding their bodies with bills designed to seize the moment – that moment in time when the upheaval in legislative membership has given us Republican majorities in Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Kansas, among others – to pass wildly radical rightwing reforms of various states’ educational priorities and constructs, environmental and energy production regulations, access to elections and other voting rights, increasing imprisonment in the service of privatizing prisons, undermining universal health care, and other issues made visible by governors and lawmakers like Wisconsin’s.

Thousands of state legislators – overwhelmingly Republican – past and present, mostly present, are members of this heretofore secret and very powerful brotherhood. Now, they openly recruit members. That is matched by corporate members and their lobbyists and together they are writing the laws they want to govern us from here on out.

In Minnesota, former Republican Secretary of State, now state Representative Mary Kiffmeyer is ALEC’s state chairperson here. Other prominent Minnesota Senators and Representatives are ALEC operatives in their respective chambers – eight current senators and eighteen House members that we know of, including Senate President Pro Tem and Education Chair, Gen Olson,Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers and the two primary Education chairs, Reps. Pat Garofalo and Sondra Erickson.

This is the tip of the ALEC/Corporate cartel iceberg. The rest is well below the surface – some would say underground, including the 30-year history of gradually changing the face of the United States and Minnesota’s culture of divisive and exclusionary politics and social and educational policy. And we examine the effects of this organizations on Minnesota’s legal, electoral and educational landscape with three counter-advocates working with several others to expose this axis of rightwing corruption of our democracy and the very Constitution itself – part of it employing our public police forces to protect their secrecy and to arrest dissenters, even the journalists covering them.

TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI talk with those advocates as we continue our series of programs opening the doors of groups and individuals out to undermine this core tenets of a document already thrown under the bus in the pursuit of profits and political control.

GUESTS:

MARY CECCONI – Executive Director, Parents United for Public Schools (website under renovation)

Last time, we included representatives from the Minneapolis teachers union – the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers – the long-standing bargaining unit for those standing in front of our kids. This week, those reps found themselves forced to withdraw by personal circumstances, so we’re bringing back the critics and hope to clarify their positions. Those stakeholder groups - like Action for Equity and Put Kids First Minneapolis started attending the meetings and, in no uncertain terms insisted that, as progressives who support collective bargaining and closing the gaps. In coalition with others, and calling it "Contract for Student Achievement," they advanced five key ideas for last Fall’s bargaining. They, and their ideas for reforms, ran into a brick wall, essentially dismissed as interlopers with no business being part of the process. We talk with our returning advocates.

In Segment Two, we learn about the effort to organize University of Minnesota Graduate Assistants into a UAW local (GSWU/UAW). Grad Assistants are those research and teaching aides who do much of the work collecting and imparting knowledge to undergraduates and other graduate students while administrating classes and compiling data for professors and instructors as they work their own way toward masters degrees and PhD.

HELP US BRING YOU THESE IMPORTANT DISCUSSIONS OF COMMUNITY INTEREST – PLEASE DONATE HERE!

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This is the stuff of novels and conspiracy films.

The once obscure, even friendly-sounding acronym for an equally innocuous corporate name – ALEC – for the American Legislative Exchange Council – has suddenly been thrown into the glare of exposure lately. ALEC-controlled state legislators across the country are literally flooding their bodies with bills designed to seize the moment – that moment in time when the upheaval in legislative membership has given us Republican majorities in Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Kansas, among others – to pass wildly radical rightwing reforms of various states’ educational priorities and constructs, environmental and energy production regulations, access to elections and other voting rights, increasing imprisonment in the service of privatizing prisons, undermining universal health care, and other issues made visible by governors and lawmakers like Wisconsin’s.

Thousands of state legislators – overwhelmingly Republican – past and present, mostly present, are members of this heretofore secret and very powerful brotherhood. Now, they openly recruit members. That is matched by corporate members and their lobbyists and together they are writing the laws they want to govern us from here on out.

In Minnesota, former Republican Secretary of State, now state Representative Mary Kiffmeyer is ALEC’s state chairperson here. Other prominent Minnesota Senators and Representatives are ALEC operatives in their respective chambers – eight current senators and eighteen House members that we know of, including Senate President Pro Tem and Education Chair, Gen Olson, Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers and the two primary Education chairs, Reps. Pat Garofalo and Sondra Erickson.

This is the tip of the ALEC/Corporate cartel iceberg. The rest is well below the surface – some would say underground, including the 30-year history of gradually changing the face of the United States and Minnesota’s culture of divisive and exclusionary politics and social and educational policy. And we examine the effects of this organizations on Minnesota’s legal, electoral and educational landscape with three counter-advocates working with several others to expose this axis of rightwing corruption of our democracy and the very Constitution itself – part of it employing our public police forces to protect their secrecy and to arrest dissenters, even the journalists covering them.

TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI talk with those advocates as we continue our series of programs opening the doors of groups and individuals out to undermine this core tenets of a document already thrown under the bus in the pursuit of profits and political control.

GUESTS:

MARY CECCONI – Executive Director, Parents United for Public Schools (website under renovation)